Muddy's Kerry Potter got married at The Tythe Barn in Launton, North Oxon, a decade ago. She returns - with her husband (yep, he's still tolerating her, phew) - for a sleepover at the venue's new shepherd's hut.

I escaped the snow in February for a week in Antigua - and with 365 beaches to choose it was hard work (*cough*). The result? Your replete guide to where to stay, put your beach towel, eat and sightsee in this most laidback of Caribbean islands.

Was summer a staycation washout? In that case you may want to feast your eyes on Turquoise Holiday's Family Sale - up to 40% (yes, you read that right) off stunning holidays in the Maldives, Mauritius and South East Asia. See you on the sun lounger!

The first award-winning series of Broadchurch opened with a shot of distinctive honeycombed sandstone cliffs with a child’s body at the bottom. I may not have guessed who done it, even by the final episode, but I immediately recognised where. Broadchurch is largely shot in West Bay on Dorset’s Jurassic coast, a few bays down from Lyme […]

Happy days to one very lucky Muddy reader who is about to float off with a luxury weekend at Another Place, The Lake in Ullswater, The Lake District. Thousands of you entered this one – I guess everyone needs a holiday! – but the winner is (*drum roll*)… Michelle Tebbutt. Congratulations to you lady. I’m […]

Ever keeled over on a settee hugging a bottle of Pinot Noir? No, me neither <cough>. Anyway, here’s a much more sophisticated way to sleep with wine. Rathfinny vineyard perched in the South Downs has some gorgeous cosy-yet-stylish accommodation in the Flint Barns on site. It’s perfect for either a house party or a rejuvinating […]

When I travel I love to experience another culture. I prefer boutique hotels and if there’s great local food as well then I’m one happy bunny. So Vegas with its crass fakery, giant accommodation and all-you-can-eat buffets should be my idea of holiday hell… yet somehow it isn’t. I’ve been there a couple of times and found […]

Remember that dramatic wedding scene at the end of The Graduate when Dustin Hoffman bangs on the glass at the top of the church? I had to fight the urge not to recreate it when I stayed over at The Barn at Roundhurst recently. Just look at this epic lounge/restaurant space with a glass-fronted snug […]

Crime novelist Clare Donoghue was brought up in Somerset and spent the obligatory ten years in London before moving back to the West Country to do an MA in creative writing at Bath Spa. By the end of the year she had her first novel – Never Look Back – and her main characters DI […]

And so it came to pass that the mudlets were gently but firmly pushed into the loving arms of their doting Auntie while Mr Muddy B and I hopped into the car and floored it. Yes, we had escaped to Windsor for 24 hours… no kids to harrass us, nothing to do but browse in shops (yes, […]